Jaden chuckled at this before becoming serious once more. “Aren’t you married?” he asked accusingly.
“Happily, even, sometimes,” Angst replied. His eyes thinned to peering, and he stopped petting the lab. “Remember? You met her hand.”
“You seem defensive about everything I do,” Jaden said, cocking his head to one side. “You don’t like me much, do you?”
“What difference does that make? Whether I like you or not? You come out of nowhere bearing bad tidings and don’t remember who you are or where you’re from. Oh, and you wield magic.”
“So you don’t trust me.”
“Should I? Would you?” Angst asked pensively. “I see how you look at her, and she’s not ready for that look yet.”
“From other men,” Jaden challenged.
Angst pulled his swifen to a halt.
“You have no foci, I wouldn’t recommend—” Jaden flew from his horse before he could finish his sentence, landing hard on the ground in a surprised heap of cloak and leather armor.
Angst calmly dismounted his swifen and placed Scar on the ground. He took a step toward Jaden. Before he could react, Jaden’s glowing orange hand smacked at the air, and the magic lifted Angst high off the ground. Angst flew twenty feet to land jarringly in a pile of wet slush. His cheeks were now red with anger, and the snow quickly melted off his face. Angst pushed himself up, both arms glowing bright blue as he marched forward.
Within moments, Scar grew to giant size behind Angst and barked loud enough to shake everyone’s armor. The monster dog prepared itself to leap at Jaden.
“No,” Angst commanded, and the giant pup hunkered down, growling at the young man.
“Should we put a stop to this?” Tarness asked, bringing his great marble stallion around to face the battle.
“Please.” Rook pleaded as he backed his pinto several feet.
“Wait, I want to see something,” Dallow said, stopping Hector from dismounting. He glanced over at his friend, who was obviously disturbed by the outburst. “They won’t kill each other, and if things get worse we can step in.”
Things got worse. Balls of fire shot from Jaden’s outstretched hands, creating a trail of smoke and drying the ground between them. Angst instinctively blocked the first fireball, surrounding himself with a shield of air. Fire struck the shield and wrapped around it. Snow at the base of the shield instantly melted to a boil. Angst lifted his glowing hands and continued advancing. The shield appeared to be shrinking, as every additional fireball struck closer to Angst. Finally, the shield was small enough to cover only Angst’s hands and he batted the fireballs away as he approached Jaden.
Jaden’s eyebrows furrowed with concern. He stopped throwing the fire, held both palms together and stretched out his fingers. Wind rushed from Jaden’s hands, pushing against Angst, hindering his steps. The gust quickly became a gale, forcing him to stop. Angst concentrated, and his armor glowed blue as he forced the steel to take each step against the torrential onslaught of air being thrust at him.
Jaden was showing signs of exhaustion. He stopped pushing wind at Angst and stretched his arms far apart in preparation for yet another attack. Before he could cast anything, Angst blurred as though he wielded Chrysleanor and appeared directly in front of the young man.
“You know a lot of fancy tricks, but there’s a reason I was chosen to wield a foci,” Angst said with menacing calm.
With two glowing hands, Angst picked Jaden up as though the man weighed nothing then drove him into the ground like a fence post. The earth below the young man cracked and split to make just enough space for Jaden to be pushed into the ground.
Jaden, now waist deep in earth and snow, looked about in panic. He was breathing heavily with exhaustion, and struggled helplessly against the trapping ground. Jaden held his hands up in surrender to keep Angst from attacking again.
Angst leaned over and reached out a hand. “You have one chance, that’s it. Are you with me or against me?”
He stared at Angst’s offered hand, and the orange hue surrounding Jaden’s arms disappeared. The young man took a deep breath to calm himself then reached out to take Angst’s wrist. The earth surrounding Jaden relaxed and fell away like sand as Angst pulled the younger man free.
“I’m with you, Angst. I didn’t mean...” Jaden looked genuinely apologetic. He once again stared at Angst as though he knew him. “Sorry.”
Angst inspected the young man for a moment, still not understanding the familiarity. He sniffed and smelled the coppery scent of blood.
“Everything okay now?” Hector asked as he dismounted his panther swifen.
“If you two want to hug, the rest of us can turn around,” Tarness mocked, unable to see the blood.
“I save all my hugs for you, big guy,” Angst said, kissing the air mockingly.
He turned to face his friends, and they gasped aloud. Angst’s face was pale and gaunt. Blood streamed from his nose and ears as though he had taken a terrible blow to the head. It was an eerie sight with Angst’s broad smile and confused look at his friend’s reactions. He pulled off his gauntlets and reached for his face to find it covered in blood.
“Great,” he said simply. Angst pinched his nose with one hand and sat hard in obvious frustration. With the other hand, he grasped a handful of snow to wipe blood from his ears and cheeks. He could barely speak the words, “Peade don’t tell Heather.”
Scar had shrunk to his normal puppy size. He trotted over to Angst and yipped threateningly at Jaden before lying beside Angst as though suddenly filled with depression.
Hector gave Dallow an annoyed glance. “This is as good a place to stop as any. I was only planning to ride another hour anyway.”
“Hey, at least we have dry ground,” Tarness said with a smile.
Angst felt light-headed but couldn’t decide if it was from the battle or loss of blood. He rested by a generous campfire as everyone else tended to tents and dinner, ignoring his friends’ worried looks. He felt guilty for not doing more to help, but he was drained.
The campsite was perfect. Jaden’s fire attack and Angst’s air shield had provided them a relatively dry spot of land to pitch their tents. Dinner included cured beef, honeybread baked fresh that morning, and a large bottle of port wine, which was handed around. The first day on the road was always the best for eating, and Angst quickly regained much of his lost energy. Scar, who had consumed his own healthy plate of beef in gulps, took a turn begging for more from each of them. Eventually he plopped himself next to Rook, who offered the lab more beef than the rest.
“Feeling better?” asked Dallow before taking a few gulps of port and handing the bottle to Tarness.
“Much.” Angst eyed the bottle hungrily. “I don’t know what’s going on with the nosebleed thing, but it can stop now.”
“I think you’re allergic to setting up camp,” Tarness said with a wink. He took a “sip” that Angst estimated drained half the bottle.
“You don’t have any theories, oh learned one?” Hector asked Dallow.
“Now that you mention it,” Dallow began, sounding relieved to share the thoughts swirling about his head. He accepted the bottle from Tarness, took a swig, and handed it to Rook. Everyone rolled their eyes and shared smiles as Dallow took a deep breath to explain. “It’s not that complicated, really. Before bonding with Chryslaenor, you were good with minerals, very good actually.” Dallow smiled and nodded encouragingly. “After bonding, you not only began expanding your abilities to other elements, but the sheer power you wielded was mindboggling. It makes sense that you still remember how to do some of what you learned, but you shouldn’t be any more powerful than you were before.”
“That makes sense.” Angst nodded agreeably as he watched Rook drink from the port and hand the bottle to Jaden. Shouldn’t it have been his turn?
“But you are more capable than you should be. Crushing the bones in that man’s arm, for example? I have a feeling young Jaden knows more about magic than
any of us, but when you two were—”
“Being stupid?” Tarness interjected. Both Angst and Jaden quickly shot him cool looks. Jaden handed the bottle to Hector.
“Yes,” Dallow agreed with a wry grin. “You beat Jaden with brute force. These are signs, Angst, that you’re wielding power you shouldn’t.”
“Why is it I’m always doing something I shouldn’t?” Angst said in frustration. When his rhetorical question wasn’t answered, he continued. “Okay, I do feel stronger, when I’m not bleeding out my head, but how am I able to ‘brute force’ magic without Chryslaenor?”
“I don’t know,” Dallow admitted. “But my best guess is that it’s like widening a creek. If there’s enough water it becomes a river.”
“And if there isn’t enough water?” Rook asked.
“The creek dries up,” Angst replied staring at Dallow. “It’s a sound theory... So how do I fix my little problem?”
“Try not to use up the water,” Dallow replied. “I would try to wield magic like you used to.”
Angst thought for a long moment, accepting the bottle from Hector. He hefted the bottle, expecting a swig, only to find nothing more than a gulp remained. Angst looked down the throat of the empty bottle longingly. He patted his leg and Scar scampered to him. While petting the lab, he contemplated and quickly jumped to a conclusion.
“So that explains the problem with my swifen,” Angst said hopefully.
“Um, well...” Dallow looked to the others for help.
“Actually, I think that has more to do with your sword getting smaller,” Hector said with a raised eyebrow.
10
The lack of dreams left Angst with a small headache the following morning. It beat against the inside of his forehead, like allergies not yet dulled by the first frost. Before becoming Al’eyrn, before wielding Chryslaenor, he’d had dreams. They weren’t frequent things, but the ones he could remember were filled with color and adventure and, on occasion, they’d come true. Chryslaenor had replaced those dreams with its own visions the minute he’d touched the foci. Now it seemed all dreaming had been forcefully removed along with his bonding, leaving him with nights of sleep and little rest.
Angst kept his eyes closed and tried not to stir within his tent, hoping nobody would notice. Scar left his side, stretched, and crept through the tent opening, letting cold air nip at his nose and lips. He was lonely without Chryslaenor, without Rose, and he hated leaving Heather and Victoria behind. This was not adventure, this was annoying, and Angst didn’t want any part of it...until he smelled bacon.
“I really miss Rose being here,” he heard Hector say. “Not to do the cooking, but because she knew how to make it taste good.”
“Me too,” Dallow replied somberly.
“What you were saying...is that really the reason she didn’t want to be here?” Hector asked in disbelief. “She wasn’t just being mean for the sake of being...Rose? It wasn’t for that boy Angst injured in the bar?”
“I don’t think so. She basically repeated what she said after Vars attacked her.” Dallow whispered, though still loud enough for Angst to hear, “She said she didn’t think he could keep her safe anymore.”
“That doesn’t sound like Rose at all.” Hector was whispering now as well. “Don’t tell Angst. He’s going to have a hard enough time without her. Hearing that would kill him.”
And it did kill him, a little, on the inside. That useless feeling had returned, and he expected that at any moment someone would ask him to start filing papers in the castle cellar again. The emptiness was worse than before he had wielded Chryslaenor—almost enough to make him insecure. He rolled over and pushed himself up. His sore muscles and tight tendons reminded him how long it had been since he had traveled, or fought, and he would feel it all day.
“That smells good!” Jaden said energetically. “Anything I can do to help?”
“You can clean once I’m done,” Hector replied. “Thanks for asking.”
“Aren’t you cold?” Dallow asked.
“It’s a little chilly...but, eh, I’m fine,” Jaden replied breathing the cold air in through his nose. It then sounded as though he were hopping up and down.
Angst rolled his eyes and took a deep breath before crawling from the warmth of the tent into the painfully bright and crisp morning.
“Morning, old man,” Jaden prodded.
Angst smiled politely then looked at Dallow with eyes that said, “that’s enough sass to punch him in the jaw, right?”
Dallow responded with a smirk and a quick shake of his head.
Angst was obviously the last to wake, as everyone’s tent had been neatly tucked away. He turned away from his friends and began packing up.
The snow seemed lazy. Large flakes fell slowly and rested on the skin for a moment before melting, as though waiting for someone to notice their uniqueness. Even atop the swifen, Angst could tell the ground was soft. Each step of his ram’s hooves crunched through a thin layer of ice before squishing into the mud below. Winter had barely decided to arrive, often making the daytime air cool rather than cold. They stopped their horses at the edge of a tall cliff with a breathtaking view of the shadowy sea.
“Nice place to put a house,” Tarness stated as he stared out at the expanse of water far below.
“That’s what the people of Cliffview thought,” Jaden said forlornly.
“I’d never traveled there. To Cliffview, that is. Are you sure this was it?” Angst asked Jaden, striving for a non-threatening tone.
“Maybe,” Jaden answered with concern. He looked at Angst’s face to make sure there was no challenge in the question and relaxed when he saw Angst’s worry. “I’m definitely not from around here, but I think we’re close.”
Angst and Hector looked at Dallow, who immediately searched through maps in his mind. Dallow’s eyes flashed white as he scanned the vast library of books stored within his memories. Rook winced and looked away uncomfortably, but Dallow’s eyes soon returned to their natural green.
“We are close. You did good, Jaden,” Dallow said with an encouraging nod. “We’re only a couple miles south.”
They continued along the cliff edge at a cautious pace. After several minutes, Angst noticed that the distant horizon appeared cut off, as though ending too soon. There were no trees, no foliage, animals, or signs of life in general. Angst looked at Hector, whose keen senses were already scouting well beyond what the others could see. His older friend and mentor looked confused, his thick brow furrowed.
“What’s that look?” Angst asked.
“Something isn’t right,” Hector said after another minute had passed.
“Is that all you’ve got?”
“That’s all for now, Angst,” Hector replied, his gray wolf-like eyes once again staring out far ahead.
Without another word, Angst urged his ram forward. Everyone followed quietly, on edge with knowing that something felt wrong while there was no outward evidence of danger. Ten minutes passed before they found the horseshoe carved out of the cliff. A ‘U’ shape had been roughly torn from an otherwise straight cliff wall.
“Just as Alloria described it,” Angst said quietly to himself, drawing his red cloak about himself and Scar.
Jaden shot him a cool look.
“It still proves you’re both right,” Dallow said to Jaden, calming the young man.
“All those people, just...gone,” Rook said sadly. “I had hoped that, well, maybe—”
“What’s that?” Tarness interrupted the moment by pointing toward the middle of the crescent. “Is that another hole?”
They followed the cliff face for five minutes before coming to a gap. Halfway around the ‘U’ where Cliffview had sat, they found a circle. This circle met yet another circle, which met another as far as the eye could see. It was as if the number eight had been smashed into the ground back-to-back, creating new holes wherever it landed. But calling it a hole was like calling the moon a rock. Each circle was almost perfect and
the size of a small city. The circle edges were sheer drops into forever.
“This wasn’t here when I left,” Jaden said in a high, worried tone.
“What in Ehrde could do something like this?” Rook said loudly to cover the deeper worry in his voice.
“It looks like an enormous sinkhole,” observed Dallow. “But I’ve never heard of sinkholes this large. These must be thousands of feet deep.”
“Let’s follow the trail and see where they go,” Angst suggested.
They rode for several hours, following ten of the circles end-to-end into a large snowy clearing.
“Wait,” Hector said, holding up his hand for everyone to stop. “Do you hear that?”
Scar’s ears perked up, and the puppy whined. Rook’s horse snorted and stomped. A rumble in the distance grew louder.
“That’s not good,” Tarness commented on the animal’s reactions.
A hundred yards away, a herd of creatures thundered through the openness. They were massive, twice the size of a large bear, and moved with incredible speed. The creatures didn’t charge directly at them, but instead seemed to target the nearby cliff edge.
“Are they in a formation?” asked Rook in surprise. He drew his short sword. “They’re almost in a triangle, like a flock of birds.”
“Yeah, that’s not right,” agreed Tarness. “I’ve never hunted anything like that out here. It’s always been deer or elk in this area, not green-colored herds of giant things.”
“Maybe something left over from the Vex’kvette?” asked Dallow.
The approaching herd sprinted even faster toward the edge.
“What are they doing?” Dallow yelled in shock. “They’ll die!”
Only fifty yards away, the green-skinned monsters were moving almost too fast to discern, but they appeared unconcerned by the edge of abyss that Angst hated his friends looking over. The creature in the lead leaped into the hole, making everyone gasp. The other monsters followed, as though they were all plummeting to their death, but just before they fell, the monsters spread their arms wide. Skin stretched from their wrist to their ankle and, still in formation, they glided northeast to the next sinkhole.
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